#NOT EVEN TO MENTION THE WORKING CONDITIONS AT MAPPA NOW

[ihavealotoffeelingsaboutyoi]

I remember years ago after YOI had come out, I started looking up more MAPPA anime and suggesting them to my friends. I felt like MAPPA was doing something different with anime and their shows were beautiful and unique. I really wanted to support them. Looking back just makes looking at how far down they’ve fallen all the harder.

[strykingback]

You know what Crimson you just really had to bring the anime argument onto a post talking about RWBY's legacy. Aight then. Might as well break down your most recent post then ya big whiny baby.

First things first to kick things off. Our friend here posted this image of Worick Arcangelo saying: "Hi Failure" in response to their RWBY Final Thoughts: Legacy.

This I assume is in response to how you (Crimsonxe) had gotten cooked many many MANY fucking times by the RWDE community here on tumblr, so much so that it's like a five-star course at an expensive ass restaurant. Plus, I am certainly aware the person who posted the image is aware of Gangsta for it's great usage of dark themes and the like as well.

Then, as soon as you respond back to "Leave Gangsta Out Of This" to which the OP then responds with the character Nicolas Brown while captioned "sleepy nico" Once again showing that they are aware of this manga and anime because Nicolas here is DEAF and uses sign language and sometimes even speaks as well!

I can assume yet again this was a means to tell you again Crimson that they are ignoring you as well while simultaneously cooking that five star course meal in the most vaguest way ever.

But aside from that. This was what prompted the response Crimson ya little bitch boy.

As you said yourself: "Also psssst newsflash anyone that does support manga/anime has no ground at all to speak against RT on the grounds of how they did things behind the scenes."

Now since you did mention "on the grounds how they did things behind the scenes." I think it's time I brought up a situation that happened last year.

Studio Mappa came under extreme controversy as it was revealed that the employees there was underneath extremely harsh conditions because they were working on four things at the same time.As quoted by the famous japanese freelance animator Mushiyo who criticized MAPPA as he compared the studio to that of a factory and how eighty percent of employees there had THE SAME COMPLAINTS AS HE DID.

Oh but it gets worse.... MAPPA had all employees and animators there sign an NDA that prevents them from talking negatively about the company online, low wages, abusive staff.

It would all come to a head during Jujutsu Kaisen Season two when MAPPA employees went to twitter to vent about working at MAPPA which garnered an incredible response from anime fans across the globe came to their defense praising the animators for their hard-work and demanding that MAPPA give the animators a LONG NEEDED BREAK.

Surprisingly enough.. its not just also Studio Mappa!

Studio Madhouse well known for Paprika, Perfect Blue, Hellsing Ultimate, and the first season of One Punch Man also suffered from this as well. As they were accused of violating labor codes as employees there worked over four hundred hours per month and went THIRTY SEVEN DAYS BACK TO BACK WITHOUT A DAY OFF!!! This was so SO BAD to the point where an employee working there who had committed suicide and was working 600 hours in a month.

Now while there are many other studios who could be just as worse as the two listed here. Surprisingly there are studios who do treat their animators fairly and like actual human beings. But some studios like Studio Bugs Film who created the popular Zom 100: Bucket List Of The Dead actually calls them out IN THE FIRST EPISODE.

Now with Manga most of the time the volumes released depends on one thing! The Mangaka's schedule and how detailed some of their art might get.

But at the same time there is indeed the brutality of the Manga workplace is competitive to hell! So much so that there has been accounts of manga artists suffering from mental, physical, or even internal health problems that can cause such problems so much so that it can lead to an early FUCKING GRAVE.

So Crimson... what was that about not having anime/manga fans not having grounds to stand on to speak against RT when anime and manga fans had known about this FOR YEARS.

Rooster Teeth had done this to their animators just like MAPPA did. How the hell are you gonna sit there and continuously glaze Rooster Teeth but ignore all the controversy they have done.

Low Wages Towards Employees

Literally made a slur as a nickname towards Kdin Jenzen

Had a Mocap person suffer permanent damage to their body

Many Many Animators working for Rooster Teeth suffering underneath Harsh to Abusive Conditions

Frat-Bro workplace

Gee the list goes ON AND FUCKING ON MAN. Like get it through that THICK HEAD of yours dude!

Now onto what else you said: "Especially in regards to femme characters, racism, homophobia, and transphobia."

Okay now that you mentioned that might I remind you that... RT also... did the same thing to their female characters

Gee I wonder if theres a post somewhere talking about that......OH WAIT!!!

1) Pyrrha has very noticeable cleavage 2) Ruby was put in a pin-up pose when she drank the tea 3) The anti-upskirt technology in itself is a bit counter-intuitive if they just like oh idk, didn't have upskirts at all like the V4 'joke' with Nora and Ren during the Nuck fight 4) Yang exists, especially her RWBY x JL Part 2 design. Not to forget other characters like Pyrrha, Glynda, and even Nora having cleavage or boob windows incorporated into their designs 5) Ruby when being tortured by Neo in V9 had clothing damage, one cut noticeably on her chest

Also it's not like I too also made a post about some tough femme fatales

Homophobia? Motherfucker there are plenty of anime that do have LGBTQ+ in it.

Banana Fish Citrus Yuri On Ice Revolutionary Girl Utena Bloom Into You Given Junjou Romantica Komi Can't Communicate (Contains a Nonbinary Character)

Trans-Anime? Oh Yeah THATS THERE TOO!!!

Claudine Boys Run The Riot Hourou Musuko Paradise Kiss Princess Jellyfish Skip and Loafer Ouran High School Host Club Tokyo Godfather Zombieland Saga Stars Align

Racism? Maaan CRIMSON YOU MADE THIS SHIT WAY TOO EASY

Code Geass Aldnoah Zero Space Battleship Yamato 2199 Inuyasha Attack On Titan Naruto FUCKING ONE PIECE.

Oh dont get so quiet now, I'm your bumper now Crimson!

Especially their views on Handicapped People? Crimson... you are stupid... just so so FUCKING STUPID.

Handicapped Anime:

Ranking Of Kings- Main Character Bocchi is Deaf and Mute A Silent Voice- Shoko Nishimiya is a deaf character as she has self-esteem issues and her childhood bully is learning sign-language in order to apologize. Yuki Yuna Is A Hero- Mimori Tougou is a magical girl that when she transforms she does not gain the ability to walk on her legs, but instead uses extensions of her costume to help her fight, even as the series progresses the other characters lose bodily functions and must figure out how to live with it.

Josee, The Tiger and Fish- Kumiko is a paraplegic girl who has a dream to see the Outside world with her own eyes, but due to the way how society treated her she generally is afraid of strangers and tries to act tough in a way.

Your Lie In April- One of the main characters, Kaori Miyazono suffers from a sever illness which prompts her to have multiple hospitalizations for most of her life. Then when its is revealed she does not have long left to live, she lives out her life the best she can while helping the main character.

My Sister Momoko- An Emotional movie about a girl named Momoko who is both mentally and physically disabled as after attending a special school she has the opportunity to study with her twin brother, which leads to her growth slowly becoming more independent as the movie goes on.

FULL METAL ALCHEMIST- Needs no Explanation. Literally does an incredibly amazing job talking about prosthetics, PTSD, mental health, physical health, etc. ITS ALL THERE.

Real fuckin' quiet over there Crimson. Cause certainly I did my fucking research! So yeah, basically me and the rest of RWDE all watched anime and we all do have the right to criticize RT and RWBY.

So do me a favor and Shut the FUCK UP.

Lastly before I go @surgepricing I read your RWBY Final Thoughts: Legacy and I hereby bestow upon you this.

You literally cooked an amazingly well done breakdown of everything for what may possibly be RWBY's legacy and so on forth. I hereby say that you are indeed a head chef cause goddamn I'd rather just be on a station and listen to you cook more! Once again well done !

Anyways Im out of here its 3:37 AM and I gotta get some sleep.

[kafkaoftherubble]

Idk if you particularly care about the Crunchyroll Anime Awards but voting opened yesterday (https://www.crunchyroll.com/animeawards/vote) and the nominees for some of the awards are so confusing.

With the amount of cool anime that came out last year I’m confused on why there’s a lack of diversity in the options. Look, I loved JJK S2, but why is it in nearly every category 😭. I’m also reluctant to let MAPPA get any kind of a win due the horrid scheduling conditions the animators were put under.

It just feels like the people that were deciding the nominees were like “Oh yeah CSM, Oshi no Ko, and Demon Slayer were pretty popular, just throw it in there!” Also didn’t the CSM anime come out and end in 2022, why is it here?

Also as a Hells Paradise manga fan, I’m confused on why the anime adaptation is even anywhere NEAR these awards. Best opening I understand, but it was a show that clearly suffered from MAPPA overwork and then taking on too many IPs. It’s just clogging up nominee spaces at this point.

Yo, I forgot that it's time for that Anime Award thing again! I remembered the Game Awards but not this, damn. SHould we vote too?

Oh yea, 2023 was such a banger.

I kinda expected JJK S2 to show up in a lot of categories, especially since I think for a lot of them, it does seem rather deserving to be there... even if it takes away the votes for other work. I think about it this way: is it fair to deny someone from being a candidate in a race even though they qualify, just because they are very popular? For now, I lean negative to this.

Of course! Deserving or not is a matter of subjective taste! To that, I am happy to concede, haha!

That said, since the Anime Award is a popularity award, I think voters like us should try to balance out the votes cast for JJK to mitigate the possible expense of other deserving anime.

I don't remember if Crunchyroll would show the percentage of votes for transparency purposes when the voting closes, but I think it's useful to do that. If JJK wins, we know it's because of its meteoric popularity, not because its competitors suck. Then we can see how, despite the competition, some anime managed to score a pretty startling number of votes.

I think focusing on the statistics cuts straight to the heart of acknowledgment and appreciation of an art form, even if it lacks the glory of actually winning the first prize. But hey, it's low-stakes stuff in the end. It ain't the general or presidential election, innit? 😂

If only we could do rank-choice voting...

---

I also do not understand why Chainsaw Man is here. I also thought it would not be counted because it was from last-last year.

I kinda think Oshi no Ko deserves to be around, though!

Demon Slayer... has been like a goddamn mainstay for years now, jesus. I'm gonna refrain from opining about it precisely because I don't enjoy Demon Slayer, so anything I say may be inseparable from this personal bias against the work, ahahhaha!

---

MAPPA taking so many projects shows another issue now that you mentioned it: it's taking up a lotta places with different projects too! If you don't want MAPPA to win, because you want to punish them for the way they treated their animators, your choices will become so much more limited. It's not a full-blown MAPPAのpoly yet, but there is a nascent emergence of it. Brrrrr.

Just taking up so many of the candidacies—via their surplus products—increases the probability of MAPPA emerging as the shadow victor no matter what anime won. Well, well, well. Slick move, MAPPA.

Anyway, I'm spitballing here, but...

I kinda think that it's high time awards minimize the brand of the studio and start amplifying the names of certain teams contributing to the art, like... the lead animators and the director. Ya know, "Director X and Their Team" instead of "MAPPA studio."

And award categories should really expand beyond genre or whatever the host makes up. Some of their categories even seem meaningless to me, like "best continuing series." What's there to celebrate about a long-running series? Why can't a series just compete with other series, regardless of how long it ran, as long as it's within that year?

Instead, wouldn't it be better if we create categories for "best animator" or "best scene" or, hey! There's an existing one! "Best Art Direction!" But instead of letting "Anime X, Studio Y" be the rep, we actually credit the name of the lead animators et al., and then the actual scene within the anime itself?

That way, even a show with fewer fans could still get recognized for that show's sick artistic achievements (if applicable), and the people behind it are at the forefront of said recognition. While we as fans can still shower credits to a big-production show—since it's got a lot of really good stuff—with minimal "accidental plaudits" to terrible studio execs.

I kinda... just think that if award shows are meant to celebrate and acknowledge the medium of anime, why not really cut to the heart of it?

Who are we celebrating for achievements, and for what?

---

I did not read Hell's Paradise as a manga, hee hee. Don't jump on me!

So, with nothing to compare, I liked the anime enough. I'm actually not bespoke about sakuga and composition and whatnot; I'm as unsophisticated as they come, ahahah! I love the monsters and the flowers and stuff!

I love the story and the philosophical mix between Buddhism and Daoism. It's so rad. I also really admire Sagirin! And I like Gabimaru too.

All these alone actually make me like the anime /scratches head

...Yea I'm shallow like that! HAHAHAHHAHAHA!

PLUTO WHERE YOU AT LEMME LAVISH YOU WITH VOTES YOU BETTER BE IN THERE

---

Oh, the length of this reply qualifies so...

Thank you for reading my ramble!

[edengarden]

OKAY OKAY you know what else I noticed about Haruta? After stabbing Ijichi he said "picking on the weak suits me well" (which checks out since Nanami mentioned that he killed a lot of the support staff aka nonfighters in Shibuya + the way he tortured Nitta), yet Mr Hanger Rack called him weak and that's why he made him a sword that holds his hand (lmao) and even Haruta himself seems to share that view ("There I go again" after failing to cut Utahime, didn't contradict Hanger Rack calling him weak, called Nobara strong then told her that just being strong wasn't enough to win in their world, etc). There's also the fact that his curse technique isn't made for combat and he has a small, frail body (Mappa made him JACKED, they detwinkified my boy), so he probably hasn't had an easy lot in life, knowing what the jujutsu world is like.

So in psychology, there's a process called "turning passive into active". Basically, pathological sadism is often a way for the sadist to relieve themself of feelings of anxiety, pain and frustration caused by the memories of having once been a helpless victim (or still being one during most of their day/week/month/etc), and there's also that unconscious idea that they can't be a victim as long as they're causing pain ("the best defense is a good offense" basically, because that's what their life experience has taught them).

I guess what I'm trying to say is maybe the reason why Haruta became a curse user and is so cruel in the first place is deeper than just "evil man is evil just because". Maybe he's another Getou or Touji - not that we'll ever know since Gege did him so dirty, but on the plus side that means he's free real estate for headcanons.

Nonny this is fucking BRILLIANT. He really gives off the Former Bully Victim Turned Bully vibe, please this boy grew up in a dog eat dog world where the strong will pick on the weak, of COURSE his psyche would be affected by that.

Personally I like to headcanon he was raised in a sort of poor family, something he couldnt control at all and was bullied for it from a young age. As well as just being an easy victim, I headcanon that 5 y/o Haruta was just a smaller than average, nice but frail kid (bonus if he had some health issues that did indeed make him frail) that others would pick on just because he was “different”.

We all know family doesn’t help that much when children are exposed to bullying. Yes, they can switch schools, tell teachers, but they’re not at school with them, they can’t stop the bullying themselves because both of Haru’s parents needed to work and earn money so they could at least live. And most of the time teachers don’t exactly... stop bullying either, they just throw gasoline into the fire.

Now I don’t know much about psychology, but let’s say the bullying hasn’t let up for years but Haruta’s grown sick of it. He’s tried all the passive ways; he told his parents, told the teachers, tried to just be nice and take it and it doesn’t work. It doesn’t work because the world doesn’t work that way for him. It’s eat or be eaten, hurt or be hurt and he’s tired of being on the receiving end of the pain. He knows that if he wants to escape his tormentors, he has to become one himself.

Haruta was conditioned since a young age that society rewards those who are strong enough to fend for themselves and hurt, and it punishes those who are too weak and can’t.

In his parents’ case, I can see it go two ways.

The first and “easier” way is that something happened to them and they couldn’t be there for Haru anymore. Either they were arrested committing crimes like theft or prostitution in a desperate attempt to survive and make some sort of extra salary, or they died, leaving the kid alone with either extended family or just no family at all, which probably didn’t help his case.

Or they witnessed it all, but it’s not like they could afford help. They tried, they probably did, but both of them are so focused on the family’s survival that it’s hard to tend to their child’s needs, especially when he’s suffering psychological trauma and they know they don’t have the means to pay for treatment. It’d also be another reason for Haru to think and behave the way he does; he’s seen first hand what society has done to his parents.

I also have mixed feelings in Haru being detwinkified but he looks good both ways so who am I to complain, I’m just glad he was a character in the end 😫

[recentanimenews]

FEATURE: Visual Novels Strike Back in Fall 2020

  Content Warning: While otherwise safe for work, this article discusses games made in Japan's 18+ visual novel industry. It does not talk about individual games in-depth, or detail any offensive content contained within; nevertheless, curious readers should expect those games to be suitable only for adult audiences.

  One of the more memorable first episodes of anime this fall was Talentless Nana, a thriller series starring a young student with a dark secret. Curious to see why my friends were excited about it, I did some research of my own and found something bizarre in the process. Talentless Nana was based on a manga whose story was written under a pseudonym: looseboy. "Could this be the looseboy I know?" I posted on Twitter in a daze. "looseboy, the porn game writer?"

  Like the main character of Talentless Nana, as a young student, I too had a dark secret: I played visual novels. I read all three routes of Fate/stay Night. I soldiered through Muv Luv. I sought out the anime Humanity is Declined specifically because the source text was written by visual novel luminary Romeo Tanaka. These games could be overstuffed, repetitive, and deeply sexist. But don't underestimate visual novels. YU-NO upended conventions in 1996 in such a way that modern games steal its twists and are still labeled forward-thinking. Infamous video game auteur Hideo Kojima cut his teeth working on spin-offs in the hugely influential Tokimeki Memorial series. And Hajime Isayama, the creator of Attack on Titan, admitted in this interview in Brutus Magazine that he had been inspired by the 18+ mecha epic Muv Luv Alternative.  

Image via Funimation  

During my student years, some of the most popular games in the field (at least among English speaking fans) were those with scripts by looseboy — most famously, Sharin no Kuni and The Devil on G String. Games remembered for their memorable protagonists, tear-jerking melodrama, and shocking twists and turns. They also had sex scenes in them (not very good ones) because that's what games of that type were supposed to have. It had been years since I'd thought about Sharin no Kuni — I wasn't even sure if I still liked it. But here looseboy was again, in a completely different medium, shocking a whole new audience of readers and viewers.

  For visual novel fans, this fall season of anime is a bonanza. You have a remake (or is it) of rural horror epic Higurashi: When They Cry, masterminded by creator Ryukishi07. You have a new original series, The Day I Became a God, scripted by crying game grandmaster Jun Maeda and his buddies at PA Works. Then there's Akudama Drive, an explosive SF grindhouse series based on a concept by Danganronpa scribe Kazutaka Kodaka.

  Image via Hulu

  It hasn't always been like this. In the past few years, light novels have outstripped visual novels as the source material of choice in the adaptation coal mines. Series like Higurashi or Clannad that were popular in the 2000s were gradually replaced in the popular imagination by newer works like Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- and My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU. Kyoto Animation, a studio once known for producing lavishly animated renditions of games made by the studio Key, pivoted years ago to adapting light novels and manga (not to mention its own original works). It's not difficult to see why; light novels, manga, and even proper novels are easier to adapt to the medium than visual novels. It's already difficult to squeeze the multi-route structure of often stupendously long video games into the time limitations of anime — not to mention their sometimes deeply gross and problematic content, sudden perspective switches, and even total changes in genre. It took years for the creators of Fate/stay Night to figure out how to make its full story comprehensible to a wide audience. What hope could anybody else have?

  Meanwhile, the visual novel industry is changing. Some of the talent I followed in the 2000s are doing just fine. Fate/GO, a phone game written by Fate/stay Night creator Kinoko Nasu and his team of former industry luminaries, became popular not despite the long and convoluted visual novel bolted to its gambling simulator but because of it. STEINS;GATE and its progeny continue to thrive, and Ryukishi07 — the creator of Higurashi and the later Umineko: When They Cry — toils on his new magnum opus. Other creators in the field are struggling. The visual novel company light — producer of chuuni games like dies irae — folded last year due to poor management. OVERDRIVE — known for music-inspired visual novels like Kira Kira — labeled its newest title Muscius! as its "Final Project."In the United States, an early boom in Kickstarters and English translations — with former fan translators gladly pitching in with their expertise — gradually stalled under claims of exploitative working conditions and Steam's hot-and-cold relationship with the medium as a whole. In the face of the popularity of anime, manga, and even light novels, it's hard not to see much of the visual novel industry's old guard as a tiny, stagnant niche.

  Image via Hulu

  But the medium's heart still beats in all-ages visual novels, thanks to the sudden success of two new stars. Kotaro Ucihikoshi — co-writer on cult visual novel Ever17 — found surprising success in the United States with his twisty pseudoscientific thriller 999. Kazutaka Kodaka's hilariously crude and violent (yet deeply heartfelt!) Danganronpa series has built a hardcore fanbase willing to grapple with each entry's whiplash-inducing twists and turns. It's no surprise, then, that the two of them have found their way into the anime field. Uchikoshi contributed the script to MAPPA's underrated sex comedy PUNCH LINE, while Kazutaka Kodaka worked with hardcore games nerd Seiji Kishi to produce anime-original sequels to the Danganronpa games. Uchikoshi and Kodaka now work together at the company Too Kyo Games, one of Japan's most promising "middleware" developers. Their name is front and center on this fall's Akudama Drive.

  The anime industry itself has become steadily riddled with former visual novel writers. Gen Urobuchi, the scriptwriter of 2011 smash hit Puella Magi Madoka Magica, got his start writing shock-horror games like Saya no Uta. His work on PSYCHO-PASS (and love of martial arts) is foreshadowed by his earlier writing for cyberpunk games like Kikokugai: The Cyber Slayer. Then you have the creative lead on popular visual novel White Album 2, Fumiaki Maruto, who went on to script Classroom Crisis together with the director who went on to adapt My Hero Academia at BONES. And my favorite episode of schoolgirl horror anime SCHOOL-LIVE! — the third, from the perspective of the teacher Megane — was scripted by visual novel writer Hikaru Sakurai, now busy writing for Fate/GO.

  Image via Hulu

  If visual novels are often overlooked by the mainstream games press, their influence on pop culture is stronger than ever. The Persona games, an inspiration on everything from Fire Emblem: Three Houses to Supergiant's recent indie classic Hades, take heavy influence from dating sims. The deeply weird action-RPG Nier Automata, which made a legend of its director Yoko Taro despite being released in the shadow of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild back in 2016, takes undeniable influence from visual novels and the denpa (a person who feels disconnected from those around them) aesthetic. Even developers outside of Japan are paying homage with vaporwave mystery drama Paradise Killer seeking to beat Danganronpa at its own maximalist game.

  Yet it's projects like Talentless Nana that stick with me — looseboy made his name working on small games highly prized by a few. But he jumped ship to the manga world and now a comic popular enough to receive an anime adaptation bears his name. How many other visual novel writers from the old 18+ market are out there working under pseudonyms on manga and in other fields? How far does the influence spread? Will we see Shumon Yuu or SCA-JI writing for anime? Only time will tell.

  What is your favorite series airing this year from former visual novel talent? What visual novel would you love to see adapted into an anime? Did you know that you can now pick up The House in Fata Morgana at the incredible price of 0 percent off? Let us know in the comments!  

    Adam W is a Features Writer at Crunchyroll. When he isn't fervently praying that Girls' Work still has a chance of being made, he sporadically contributes with a loose coalition of friends to a blog called Isn't it Electrifying? You can find him on Twitter at: @wendeego

  Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com